Musicals in LA

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Review: The Pure Joy of MUSE-IQUE’s Summer of Sound: GLOW/TOWN

Savion Glover and Joshua Henry. All photos by Ben Gibbs

It’s official. I have a new favorite thing, and it is called Muse/ique. You would too if you’d been in the audience for GLOW/TOWN, the third in a 3-part series celebrating Motown and its roots Saturday night at Caltech. From the structure of the program to the sophistication of the environment, Artistic Director Rachael Worby and company have created a musical experience in a class by itself.

Staged outdoors in a completely made up space on the lawn of Beckman Auditorium, Muse/ique is the epitome of smart entertainment. It reaches the senses on multiple levels, appealing to the intellect as well as the heart, while engaging the audience in the pure joy of the music. In this setting, any preconceived notions or stodgy expectations get blown apart. The party is written in the music and it moves you from the inside out. All you have to do is show up.

This summer, Muse/ique’s series explored the road to Motown and what it represents in the fabric of America. The two earlier concerts looked at Motown’s connection to Latin rhythms and movement, and the evolution of Gospel music and its impact on Detroit in the sixties. In GLOW/TOWN, Worby connected all the dots by shining a breathtaking spotlight on the essential musical forms that ultimately manifested in Berry Gordy’s Motown Sound: jazz, blues, soul, and early rock ‘n roll, with a bit of pop thrown in for good measure.

Savion Glover (left) and Joshua Henry (right) with Rachael Worby
(center) and the Muse/ique Orchestra

She is incredibly effective as a guide, both conducting the orchestra and also sharing the music’s back story. Using well-chosen, often little-known, gems of information, Worby can unlock a piece and create an enticing context for the listener whether or not they have any prior knowledge of the music. It is one of Muse/ique’s most intriguing elements. She also knows how to stack the deck when it comes to special guests.

On this particular night, Hamilton fans had to make do with seeing his understudy on stage because Joshua Henry, currently starring as Aaron Burr at the Pantages, was one of two featured artists performing with Muse/ique. The other was tap phenom Savion Glover, considered the best tap dancer in the world by...well....everyone. And rightfully so. Sparks flew as these two remarkable musicians gave their heart and soul to the rhythm and the music, forging a bond between audience and artist that can only be achieved in a live performance setting.

Joshua Henry

It didn’t matter in which style he was singing, Henry burned up the mic in all of them. His version of Bricusse and Newley’s “Feeling Good” recalled the depth, danger, and defiance no one has been able to replicate since Nina Simone recorded it in 1965. He slipped into the soul shoes of Reverend Al Green for “Love and Happiness” and an infectious love groove culminating in a call and repeat with Glover that reverberated absolute joy with every pass back and forth. Please let a recording of the duo performing that song emerge because it was sensational.

They pulled off the same magic during the tribute section to Thelonious Monk (“Round Midnight” and “Misterioso”), Glover dueting first with the clarinet in a laid back rhythm, whisper soft, both musicians completely simpatico. Then the orchestra turned sexy, Glover hit on an acapella ripple effect in his footwork, and began a playful volley back and forth with Henry, who displayed some fierce scatting on Alan Steinberger’s arrangement. By the way, all of Steinberger’s arrangements are outstanding.

Henry continued to build the night’s momentum through Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” into the main Motown set, making it hard to imagine there is anything he can’t do vocally. He has a powerhouse set of pipes and the charisma of a comet. From the smooth groove of Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy, Mercy Me” to the wailing wonder he let loose on The Miracles’ “Please Don’t Leave Me Girl” to the joy he imbued in The Temptations’ extraordinary hit, “My Girl,” it was electric. By the time he reached Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in my Life,” the night had turned into one big dance party with audience members unable to sit still any longer. Yes, we were all in the aisles.

And always there was Glover, moving in and out of program, displaying the rapturous kinship between his body and the rhythm. Tapping in counterpoint with the upright bass during Duke Ellington’s “Giggling Rapids” from The River Suite was as thrilling a jazz expression as any purely instrumental version you’ve ever heard. Worby later surprised Glover with a video clip of a “tap off” he’d had with Jerry Lewis during Jerry’s MDA Telethon twenty years ago, adding an endearing wink to a night packed with brilliance.

Another highlight of the evening was the world premiere of Jed Feuer’s orchestral piece “Harambe” which means “all pull together” in Swahili. As prelude, Worby talked about how live music has the distinct power to pull us all together. Listening to his piece, you could feel Feuer’s vision. From the first poignant notes of the strings to the surging epic quality of its melodic themes, it was a gorgeous display of harmony in motion. The oboe solo, the violins, the way it made me think of living in Boulder and listening to Rifkin on Pearl Street so many years ago… if music can achieve peace in the world, this is the kind of composition to facilitate it.

Muse/ique packed so much sexy, civilized, and stimulating artistry into the night that the 90-minute program literally flew by. You know those times you check your watch during a lull in a performance to see how much is left? There was none of that going on here -- only a sea of people wrapped in the sheer joy of the music.

Muse/ique’s Summer of Sound may have ended but you can experience the unique style of Muse/ique this fall with their Uncorked Series (Tagline: A traveling party. Unconventional spaces. Fearless artists.)

The first concert takes place on October 15th and is called ROCK/ANTHEM featuring iconic songs and the FREEDOM of togetherness. On November 12th, it’s FANCY/FREE, a celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th and the FREEDOM of music. Tickets will be available shortly on their website at www.muse-ique.com. After seeing what they did with Summer of Sound, you can bet my calendar is already set.

Here’s a taste of what you missed.

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Monday, April 17, 2017

Review: BELLA GAIA – A Poetic Vision of Earth From Space

Kenji Williams. Bella Gaia

For years we’ve been taught how important it is to take care of the planet. In rural areas, that was especially true because farming the land and managing the earth’s resources meant there was food to eat and water to drink. Those whose parents lived through the Great Depression were schooled in the art of stretching a dollar, recycling and repurposing everyday items, and making do with what you had. You built community and cared about what happened to those around you because you understood that everyone needs help at one point or another.

But little by little, in the hundred years since, we’ve become a much more self-centered throwaway society. Advances in technology and industry have increased our creature comforts but they have also isolated us and built a different kind of dependence, one focused not on community but on the machinery and virtual world of the future. In some ways, we’ve lost sight of our own humanity.

Bella Gaia – A Poetic Vision of Earth From Space is a multi-dimensional musical and visual concert experience created by Kenji Williams that emotionally reconnects us – to each other and to our planet – by offering an extraordinary view of earth as one people, one world. The opening scenes take us through the chemical composition of the planets in our solar system and are a reminder that Earth is the only one that has an atmosphere able to sustain human life. Every other planet is uninhabitable.

Most of us will never circle the globe in a space capsule but in Bella Gaia we get to see the next best thing: images of earth from outer space by astronauts who made the journey. We also get to hear their incredible thoughts about what those experiences taught them. They talk about oceans that touch countries separated by borders that don’t exist when you see them from space, and how fragile the thin line of earth’s atmosphere appears from this God-like vantage point.

One astronaut aboard the International Space Station shared that on the first day of his round-the-globe adventure, they all focused on their own countries. After two or three days, on their own continent. By the fifth day, their perspective had shifted and they only saw one planet. That’s the “overview effect” – a psychological change in awareness that happens to astronauts when they experience what earth looks like suspended in space for the first time.

The footage in Bella Gaia is breathtaking and when you add the musicians – Williams on violin, Yumi Kurosawa on Japanese 20-string Koto, and vocalist Kristin Hoffmann, the resulting artistry takes on the allure of the mystical.

Exotic dancers join the group for several mesmerizing sequences with imagery from Egypt and India, the fiery sun, and the infinite cosmos. The negative effect of climate change on the Ganges River, without which the people of India could not survive, becomes a sobering reality as the message that the Ganges could run dry in our lifetime scrolls across a photograph of parched earth.

Kaeshi. Photo by Chris Cunningham

Beauty, and the global influences that threaten it, are interwoven throughout the piece. Cherry blossoms in Japan, Tokyo’s city lights, and the happy faces of children playing in water plumes from neighborhood fire hydrants contrast with visuals of oil consumption, population growth, and the effects of deforestation.

Nothing is heavy-handed but the message is clear. What affects one affects all. Perhaps the most unforgettable example shown was of a dust storm in the Sahara desert, photographed swirling in the air in Russia, that finally settled to the ground in the Philippines.

Bella Gaia = mind blown, in a glorious collision of science and art. It is an explosion of color, sound, and light that will restore your faith in the almighty and remind you that the beauty of our planet is enough to take your breath away. Deeply meaningful. Meditatively heartfelt. It was a perfect way to celebrate Earth Day at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium before the weekend. The next time it comes to Southern California, it goes on your calendar.

For more about the performance, visit bellagaia.com.